As a sophomore, Page earned first-team All-America honors as a kickoff returner from Phil Steele, as well as from the Sporting News and the Walter Camp Foundation. Page was the first UT football player to make first-team on any All-America team since quarterback Gene Swick was named first-team by UPI in 1975.

Page, who plays wide receiver as well as returning kickoffs and punts for the Rockets, ranked third in the nation in kickoff returns (31.1 average) this past season and was the only player in the Football Bowl Series to return three kickoffs for touchdowns.

As a receiver, Page was fifth in the nation with 99 receptions and gained 1,105 receiving yards. He was named the MAC’s special teams player of the year, and made first-team All-MAC as both a kickoff returner and wide receiver.

A total of 12 Rockets were named pre-season All-MAC by Steele. Page also was listed as a pre-season first-team All-MAC selection as a wide receiver and kickoff returner. Other Rockets on Steele’s All-MAC first-team list were senior running back Adonis Thomas and junior linebacker Dan Molls. Making the second-team were senior offensive lineman Mike VanDerMeulen and junior defensive end T.J. Fatinikun.

When Dr. Barbara Alice Mann and a few other faculty members around the nation decided to create a new literary journal, there was a specific type of writing they knew they were looking for.

“We wanted something free of jargon, gizmos and shiny things,” said Mann, UT assistant professor in the Honors College. “We wanted something that would have real content, using evidence and logic.”

Mann is on the editorial advisory board of Literature in the Early American Republic (LEAR), the only journal focusing on literary works and writers active between 1789 and 1851.

“Charles Brockden Brown, Hannah Webster Foster, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper — these were among the most important writers who were functioning at the beginning of this country,” she said.

In addition to sitting on the editorial board of LEAR, Mann is a contributor who has had work published in the journal, winning the 2009 James Franklin Beard Award for her work. LEAR printed its third annual issue in May.

The Literature in the Early American Republic has stayed true to printing articles without “jargon, gizmos and shiny things,” and that intention paid off when the publication was honored with the 2010 Award for Best New Journal by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals in January.

According to remarks written by council member Ralph W. Mathisen, “LEAR deals with a very significant topic that seems underrepresented, and its contributions are all deserving of the epithet ‘learned,’ lacking the jargon and overblown language that so often characterize literary studies in the modern day … the entire period of early American literature is covered, with Cooper only serving as the endpoint of its coverage.”

“We are very pleased to be considered the best new journal out there — in the humanities, not in the sciences,” Mann said. “We never expected that national award. We just thought there was a hole that needed filling.”

Mathisen also wrote that LEAR “will have real staying power and will not lose its relevance once a new literary theory du jour takes over.”

The four chicks now living in the UT peregrine falcon nest atop of University Hall’s bell tower raised the tally of successful hatches for parents Belle and Allen to 16 since 2007.

One of the four new chicks waited to be banded.

This year’s brood received their identification bands and names May 19 when members of the Ohio Division of Wildlife peregrine tracking team arrived during a rare period of weak sun between the seemingly endless rain showers.

The two male and two female three-week-old chicks were proclaimed as healthy and well-fed by Jennifer Norris, wildlife research biologist.

The chicks were named to commemorate some of the international events marking their year of birth: Cairo for the Arab Spring, Sendai for one of the first Japanese cities affected by March’s earthquake, Madison for the Wisconsin city where the U.S. organized labor debate ignited, and Gaia, the ancient name for Earth goddess, to represent the extreme weather events of the year.

The Kobacker Center at The University of Toledo Medical Center serves a unique role in northwest Ohio as the only hospital devoted to treating the emotional and behavioral needs of both children and teens.

This also poses some specific logistical challenges, and staff at the center are asking the campus community for assistance.

“We want to remind students, faculty and staff that Kobacker houses a school and multiple outpatient services, as well as an in-patient treatment facility,” said Karon Price, agency executive director, who oversees the facility. “Please avoid using Kobacker as a shortcut or parking destination if you’re not in the building to meet with faculty, students or patients.”

Price said the nature of the conditions treated at Kobacker can mean those passing through may encounter staff dealing with emotional and behavioral outbursts and other unpredictable behavior.

“In the same way you couldn’t cut though a local elementary school or a patient care center to reach your destination sooner, we’re asking members of the UT community to restrict traveling through the building unless Kobacker is your destination,” Price said.

Everyone knows how busy it is at the University when the semesters start.

To make sure that students receive the utmost attention, a new policy limiting vacation time for some employees will go into effect this year.

“The highest demand for customer service occurs the week before the beginning of classes and the two weeks that follow, which is why it is important that the University have the resources available to assist all the new and returning students,” said Dr. Kaye Patten Wallace, vice president for student affairs. “It is important to have ‘all hands on deck’ to provide optimum service to students.

“To ensure that this is the case, the University is instituting a moratorium on vacations for direct customer service areas — Rocket Solutions Central, Dean of Students, Residence Life, Financial Aid, General Accounting, etc. — during the three-week periods at the start of the semesters ,” she said.

The new policy will go into effect for the 2011-12 academic year. That means employees who work directly with students will not be permitted vacation time from Monday, Aug. 15, through Friday, Sept. 2, for fall semester, and from Monday, Jan. 2, through Friday, Jan. 20, for spring semester.

“Of course, exceptions can be made for extenuating circumstances if approved by supervisors,” Patten Wallace said.

President Lloyd Jacobs asked Patten Wallace to lead a customer service improvement team.

“The team is working to ensure that UT students receive all the support and assistance they need to make their college experiences successful,” she said.

There are a couple of new faces in Ravin Plaza on Centennial Mall, and a hefty catfish has landed behind Carlson Library near the Ottawa River.

See the stony visages titled “Happy Happy” and “The Invention,” made from glacial granite by Giancarlo Calicchia, and the corten steel and stainless steel “Cat Fish” forged by Ken Thompson. The works are three of the 10 new pieces installed for the sixth annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition.

More than 100 entries were submitted for consideration to the Midwest Sculpture Initiative. The UT Campus Beautification Committee reviewed the submissions and selected the sculptures to display.

“Sentinel,” painted steel, by Brian Ferriby

“We hope everyone continues to enjoy the beauty the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition adds to the University’s campuses,” said Dr. Steven LeBlanc, senior associate dean in the College of Engineering and chair of the Campus Beautification Committee.

Glenn Zweygardt’s “Passions Guardian” adds a 1,200-pound exclamation point to the Student River Plaza behind the Student Union. And Brian Ferriby’s red-painted steel “Sentinel” adds a dash of color to Ravin Plaza on Centennial Mall.

Other new works on Main Campus are TJ Aitken’s “Boomer’s Nike,” which is located near Ottawa East and the University/Parks Trail; John Sauve’s “Puppenspieler,” which is on the east side of the Health and Human Services Building; and Douglas Gruizenga’s aluminum “Harmony,” which sits near the southeast entrance to Nitschke Hall.

“Interloctangles,” a 175-pound steel work by Lee Badger, is outside UT Medical Center’s east entrance, and the steel “Matisse Cut-Out” by Mike Sohikian is on the south side of the Health Education Building on Health Science Campus.

“UT provides wonderful venues for the placement of outdoor sculpture that significantly adds to the beauty of campuses,” said Richard Eastop, former UT administrator, who serves on the Campus Beautification Committee. “We now have 14 sculptures that we own and 10 that are part of the annual rotating exhibit. The fact that we do this sets the University apart from many other institutions; I like that.”

Thanks to a generous donor, Dorothy MacKenzie Price from the UT class of 1948, one work from last year, Sohikian’s “Harp,” will stay on Main Campus. The piece was moved from the Ravin Plaza to the north side of the Snyder Memorial Building.

All artists received a $250 stipend for their artwork, which will remain on display for the next year. This exhibition is funded by the Campus Beautification Committee.

Michael Rasch, a graduate student majoring in accountancy in The University of Toledo College of Business and Innovation, took the $2,500 first-place award in the recent Financial Executive International (FEI) Toledo chapter 2010/2011 Essay Contest.

The contest essay topic was whether or not U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) should issue a separate set of requirements for small and medium-sized companies.

“I took the side that there should be a separate ‘little’ GAAP for small and medium-sized companies,” Rasch said. “I spent a lot of my paper comparing U.S. GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) because IFRS already has a separate set of requirements for these companies.”

“I thank him,” Rasch said. “Otherwise I probably would not have entered the contest.”

The Financial Executives International is the preeminent association for chief financial officers and other senior finance executives. With more than 15,000 members throughout North America, FEI provides networking, regulatory updates, career management, research support and more.

The Toledo chapter of FEI has members from more than 50 area companies throughout northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. The chapter invited undergraduate accounting and finance majors and graduate business students from throughout the region to compete for more than $3,000 in scholarships in the essay contest.

The University of Toledo Center for Excellence in Autism has moved into its new location in the Kobacker Center and is accepting clients.

The center, which will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday, June 10, is located in a 2,700-square-foot renovated space in the north side of the Kobacker Center, facing parking lot 43, on the corner of East Medical Loop and Health Center Drive on Health Science Campus.

The Center for Excellence in Autism is home to unique initiatives to meet the needs of adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). By focusing on diagnosis, ongoing evaluation and individualized center- and community-based services, the center is positioned to facilitate meaningful outcomes in all areas of development across the lifespan.

The Adolescent Girl’s and Women’s Wellness Initiative is the first of its kind that will provide comprehensive medical, social and behavioral services for girls and women with ASD that also will include responsible sexuality health, development and abuse prevention opportunities.

“The center is unique in that it addresses the specific needs of adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders,” said Sherry Moyer, executive and research director of the UT Center for Excellence in Autism. “Through cutting-edge research and services, we will be able to address the more complex needs of individuals with ASD as they mature in order to improve the quality of life for everyone involved.”

To learn more about the services, call the UT Center for Excellence in Autism at 419.383.3030 or email autisminfo@utoledo.edu.

To reduce costs and more efficiently utilize staff, University Print Services will close its satellite copy center located in University Hall on Main Campus.

Effective Monday, June 6, copy orders will be picked up twice daily in the current print shop in University Hall Room 2340 and in Stranahan Hall Room 5017. The orders will be taken to the Westwood Annex print shop.

Print orders also can be submitted by e-mail to westwoodprintshop@utoledo.edu.

All completed copy orders for University and Gillham halls will continue to be delivered to department and office mail boxes in the current mail room, UHall 2340, for pickup.

“Centralizing our operations will allow us to reduce costs associated with equipment,” explained Fred Reese, director of print and mail services. “Currently, we have duplication of equipment and services between the UHall and the Westwood Annex locations. Consolidating these centers will increase our efficiency as we strive to meet the University’s goal of being careful stewards of operational costs.

“University Print Services will continue to provide the same high level of customer service faculty and staff who utilize the UHall print shop have come to expect,” he added.

Questions may be directed to Reese at 419.530.7351 or fred.reese@utoledo.edu.

Pending approval by The University of Toledo Board of Trustees, UT President Lloyd Jacobs announced May 19 a number of organizational structure changes among his senior leadership team.

“Universities change and grow as the needs of the constituencies they serve evolve,” Jacobs said. “The recent retirement of Bill Logie and the permanent appointment of William McMillen as provost provided two opportunities to look at the institution’s leadership more broadly to see how we can best meet our current priorities.”

Logie serves as vice president for human resources and campus safety.

Other position and/or title changes include the appointments of:

• David Dabney, formerly interim senior vice president for finance and administration, as chief financial officer and vice president for finance;

• Dr. Frank Calzonetti, formerly vice president for research and economic development, as vice president for government relations;

• Dr. James Trempe, formerly senior director of research administration, as vice president for research; and

• Dr. Dan Johnson, former UT president who recently completed his leadership of Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates, as director of global initiatives.

In addition, Dr. Kaye Patten Wallace’s title will change from vice president for student affairs to vice president for the student experience. Jacobs said Patten Wallace will be empowered to intervene and participate in decisions in every non-faculty point of contact where the institution interacts with students.

Chuck Lehnert’s title will change from vice president for facilities and construction to vice president for administration. A to-be-named associate vice president for facilities, construction and maintenance will report to Lehnert. Beginning July 1, campus safety and health and the UT Police Department will report to Lehnert.

In addition, business development, tech transfer and other UT incubation functions, and UT Innovation Enterprises support staff, will report to Mary Jo Waldock, associate vice president of innovation enterprises, who will report to Lehnert.

Jacobs noted that the placement of the Human Resources Department in the new organizational structure had not been finalized.